The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-10-22
SAVED BY A KISS.
Elma Griffin, died April Is, 1s4s

Elma Griffin, died April Is, Is49
aged 10 years, 4 months and days.
The words were engraved upon 6
silver plate. but there was no coffir
under them. Mrs. Purroy. an elderly
lady. visiting friends living on Gin
ton avenue, Alomeda, but whose
home is in Brooklyn, n. Y, looked
with an air of mingled pride and
reverence upon the carving, for hel
name was once Elma Griffin, and the
coffin that the plate was made foi
was to have held her remains.
'On my nineteenth birthday" she
said, "my mother invited party OF
acquaintance to our house to cele.
brate the day. We lived some dis.
tance outside of Williamsburg, as II
was then, and the ground was little
soft and boggy. One of my friends
remembered this when she was about
to start for her home with her brother
and she laughingly congratulated me
on being housed already and having
no occasion to brave the swamp,
was a wild young girl in those days
and | declared at once that would
60 with them and return alone.
Everybody present tried to dissuade
me except the girls brother. We
started and when we reached my
friends house l was conscious that
my feet were quite wet, and that q
disagreable chill had crept over me,
but declined an invitation to 90 in
and went away at once. OF course,
Rob the brother. l mean-came with
me. and somehow 1 forgot the cold
damp as l walked home.
81 think we mnst h~----
a long time as we stood on my uncle's
doorsIep, ror suddenly Rob-my es.
cort, | mean-said: "Emma, yout
face is very pale. Have L kept you
standing here too long? He talked
to me 10 minutes after that and then
wished me good night and left me.
l rang the bell, and when my mother
opened the door l told her what l
might have known an hour sooner, If
l had given it thought that 1 was
really Ill. She hurried me to bed i'm
mediately, and when she came to call
me tine following morning she looked
very anxious. BY noon l was de.
lirOus. hut I could hear the doctor
tell my mother l had typhoid feveri
and that he could not hold out much
hope for my recovery. | knew my
mother was weeping, hut L was al
ways selfish girl. and | could only
cry out: Robert Robert Where is
Robert ?" and they told me, hardly
thinking that l heard them that
Robert had been suddenly called up
on to start for California early that
morning and had not even heard oI
my illness. He sent letter to me,
however, but l did not see it fOr
many weeks later.
81 grew rapidly worse, and gradu.
ally the knowledge of all outward
things passed from me. L fancy that
| had a certain consciousness. but not
of matters around me. / was in an.
other state of being, in which the
person acting and speaking-always
strangely speaking-was myself. and
yet not myself. Then came another
blank, from which 1 awoke, after
nearly three weeks of oblivion. to
see my mother and the doctor stand
ing by my bedside. The doctor said
the crisis was past, and 1 should
probably recover, but / did not feel
any interest in what he was talking
about.
"The quiet days Of convalescence
followed, and the doctor, seeing that
was very weak. regarded me seri.
ously. and warned my mother that q
relapse should be carefully guarded
against. l used at that time, too, to
fall into curious physical conditions
that suppose were frances, in which
l knew all that was going on around
me, but from which I did not seem
to care to arouse myself by moving
or speaking. These periods lasted
longer and longer, but they were not
observed, and as they were rather
pleasant than otherwise. l said moth.
ing about them.
Zone morning / awoke from what
seemed To be natural sleep, and lay